Machine for shaving hides or skins



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MACHINE FOR S'HAVING HIDES 0R SKINS. No. 479,072. Patented 11113 19, 1892.

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. 7 MAQHINB FOR SHAVING HIDES 0R SKI-NS.

No. 479,072. Patented July 19, 1892.

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UNITED "STATES PATENT rFrcE.

ALFRED A. HUNTING, OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS.

.MACHINE FOR SHAVING HIDES OR SKINS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 479,072, dated July 19, 1892.

Application filed June 15, 1891. Serial No. 396,235. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALFRED A. HUNTING, of Salem, county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Machines for Shaving Hides or Skins, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters and figures on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object the production of'a novel machine to perform the operations ordinarily designated as whitening or buffing, it being understood that by the term buffing is meant the shaving of a hide or skin to be finished on the grain or hair side, the term Whitening designating the surfacing or shaving of the hide or skin on the flesh side.

My improved machine will contain a drum or carrier having suitable jaws or clamps to engage and carry the hide or skin past a rotating cutter having a series of blades, the hide or skin before its arrival under the rotating cutter being acted upon by a pressurebar having yielding fingers, and before the arrival of the hide or skin under the pressurebar it is acted upon by a retarding device and also, as shown,by a pressure-roll, the surfaces of the retarding device and roll for the best results being rotated in the same direction as the surface of the drum or carrier on which the hide or skin rests,but at a slower surface speed, so as to stretch and even the hide or skin preparatory to the action upon it of the rotary shaving knife or cutter. To enhance the cutting action of the rotating knife or cutter, I have devised means for reciprocating the same during its rotation.

United States Patent No. 451,486, dated May 6, 1891, granted to me for a machine for treating or splitting leather, contains parts upon or with which I have combined my present improvements, and I shall show herein some of the said parts, designating them by like letters and figures.

In the operation of my improved machine to be described suitable jaws or clamps will engage the end of the hide or skin, and while the latter is resting upon a movable drum or carrier it will be acted upon by a retarding device, preferably a roller, rotating in the same general direction as the drum or carrier, but at a slower surface speed, so that the hide or skin drawn under the retarding device will be strongly stretched, and after being stretched it will pass under, preferably, a pressu re-roll having the same surface speed as the retarding device, and next under a pressure-bar which bears firmly upon the hide or skin and holds or impinges it against the drum or carrier just at the point where the rotating cutter acts upon the hide or skin to remove its uneven face and bring it to uniform thickness.

Figure 1 in side elevation represents a sufficient portion of a shaving-machine to enable my invention to be understood, especially when taken in connection with the drawings of the patent referred to. Fig. 2 is a top or plan View of the parts shown in Fig. 1 with the detaining and pressure rolls broken away to more clearly show the cutter below them. Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail in side elevation of the main parts shown at the left in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 isa partial plan view of the devices shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a detail showing the links to support the pinion e Fig. 4 is an enlarged front elevation, broken out centrally, of the rotary cutter and its shaft. Fig. 5 is a section in the line 00, Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail showing part of the pressure-bar.

The main framework a of the machine, having an arch a provided with stands a (mostlybroken away in Fig. 1,) said stands serving the purpose of bearings for suitable pressure-rolls, one of which is shown at the right in Figs. 1 and 2, the main shaft a, the drum to, having at each end like toothed rings a iand the jaw or clamp b, having a beveled face to co-operate with a beveled face 2, forming part of the drum or cylinder a, the said clamp engaging firmly one end of the'hide or skin to be acted upon and moving the same, are and may be all as in the patent referred to, wherein the same letters and figures are employed to designate like parts.

In practice the, drum ct will derive its rotation from a suitable power-shaft, (not shown,) the said shaft having in practice suitable toothed gears to engage the toothed rings c0 attached, as stated, one to each end of the drum.

In Fig. 3 I have shown one of the stands a enlarged, and it will be noticed that that stand has two arms or cars t et which receive a stud 6, upon which is mounted loosely a gear e, which is engaged and rotated by the gear a. The machine has a like stand a at each side, and it will be understood that the gearing is duplicated at opposite sides of the machine.

The stands a are slotted (see Fig. 3) to receive suitable bearing-blocks 3, which support the journals of the shaft Z) of the retardin gdevicc or roll b (Represented by dotted lines in Fig. 3 and partially broken away in Figs. 2 and 3) The shaft b has upon it :5 near each end of the retarding-roll and near each stand a a gear 6, and each gear engaged by a pinion e (partially shown in Fig. 3) by breaking out the ear Zr of the stand (i the said ear being bifurcated at its upper end, as best shown in Fig. 3, to receive be tween its jaws the upper end of a weighted frame 0, the joint between the frameand the car being effected by a belt I)". The frame 0 at its lower end,near each side, has a stud c upon which is mounted a gear a the said gear being engaged by the gear 6. Near the extreme end of the frame 0 there are suitable bearings for the reception of the jour' nals c of a pressure-roll e (Shown mostly 0 by dotted lines in Fig. 3 and broken out in Fig. 2.) The pressure-roll near each end has an attached gear 0 which is engaged by the gear 0 The frame 0 also has attached to it by suitable bolts 20 a pressurc-barfi prefer- 3 5 ably made as a steelbarslitted to leave yielding fingers, as represented best in Fig. 6, the said lingers being curved, as represented in Fig. 3, their ends bearing upon the hide or skin resting upon the surface of the drum or 40 cylinder at just in front of the point where the knives h of the cylinder 7L on the shaft h attack the hide or skin to shave the same to uniform thickness. The lever a and its attached leg a having a roll to bear upon 5 the bearing-block 3 and keep the retardingroll I) pressed in contact with the hide or skin rcsting upon the drum or cylinder a, are the same as in my patent referred to.

It remains now to describe how the gear e of the retarding-roll is actuated. To do this, and at the same time enable the retarding-roll to be moved radially toward and from the shaft o according to the thickness of the leather being operated upon, I have encircled the shaft Z), near each end of the roll b with a suitable link, as 4', (shown well by dotted lines in Fig. 3,) and I have encircled the stud 6 loosely bya second link 0'. (Represented by both full and dotted lines in Fig. 3, where the said link is shown as partially broken out to show the gears behind it.) I have shown these two links as connected loosely at their contiguous ends by a shouldered bolt r (represented best in the detail, Fi 3,) the said bolt having a thread at one end to receive a nut T the inner face of the nut abutting against a shoulder and having at its other end a journal 7' to receive upon it loosely the gear a referred to, which gear is rotated by the gear 6, and in turn rotates the gear e and roll 13. The pitch-line of the gear e on the retarding-roll is made different from the pitch-line of the gear (1, on the drum, so that the surface speed of the retarding-roll will be different from the surface speed of the drum or cylinder a. As herein shown, the diameter of the gear a is smaller than the diameter of the drum, and the diameter of the gear e is larger than the diameter of the retarding-roll, and as a result the surface speed of the retarding-roll is slower than that of the drum, as in the patent referred to hereinbefore. A suitable nut 0" prevents the gear a from moving longitudinally upon the said stud.

The shaft h of the rotating cutter or knife is mounted in suitable bearings he, and this shaft at one end has a suitable belt-pulley h, which receives a belt from some suitable source of motion; but this shaft h may be rotated at speed in any usual manner, its bearing-stands being preferably mounted in an adjustable manner upon the framework, so that the rotary cutter may be carriedto- Ward and from the shaft 0." of the drum, according to the work to be done. The shaft h at one end has, as represented, an annularly-grooved pulley h, which in practice receives suitable roller or other studs or blocks mounted upon a forked arm in of an elbowlever in, the said rock-shaft being mounted upon a suitable stud erected in a bracket m and held in place by a nut m, the inner arm of the said shaft having a suitable too or projection to enter an annular groove in the hub 11. of a gear a, mounted on a stud n erected upon the arch cf, the said gear being engaged and rotated by a gear 125, (see Figs. 1 and 2,) which gear in practice is fast upon the prolonged end of the shaft 1:, carrying, as before stated, the retarding-roll b, the object of the elbow-lever and the two annularly-groovcd pulleys h and n being to reciprocate the shaft 71. of the rotary cutter in its bearings h as the said shaft is rotated, the said bearings being preferably ball-bearings and mounted in the stands 7L2.

The frames 0 at opposide sides of the machine are joined together by brace-bars 0*.

Referring n ow to the right-hand side of Figs. 1 and 2, it will be noticed that the pressure roll a common, as stated, to my patent referred to, has at one end a gear t, which ongages a gear 0, fast on a shaft 0, the surface of which is provided with spiral grooves extended right and left from at or near the center of the roll, thus making the said roll into a widthwise stretching device to stretch and smooth the hide or skin from its center toward its edges as the hide or skin held by the clamp is being carried forward on the surface of and with the drum a.

By the term drum or carrier I intend to cover any usual movable surface suitable to IIO support the hide or skin to be acted upon, and for sake of brevity I shall designate the roll 19 as a retarding device, my invention being intended, however, to be construed broadly enough to cover any Well-known equivalent for the said roll.

Instead of the particular devices employed to reciprocate the shaft of the rotary cutter I may employ any other well-known or suitable equivalent devices, as prior to my invention I am not aware that a rotary cuttingblade of the class described has been reciprocated while it is being rotated in order to enable the blades to have a draw out.

Having described my invention, I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, as follows:

1. In a machine for shaving hides or skins, the following instrumentalities, viz: a movable drum or carrier for the hide or skin to be shaved, a retarding device to bear upon and hold the hide or skin between it and the said drum or carrier, a pressure-bar comprising a series of independently-yielding fingers, and a rotating cylindrical cutter contacting with the hide or skin adjacent to the ends of said yielding fingers, to operate substantially as described.

2. In amachine for shaving hides and skins, a movable drum or carrier, a retarding device, and a pressure-bar comprising a series of independently-yielding fingers curved at their ends to partially surround the cutter, combined with a rotating cylindrical cutter and mechanism intermediate the retarding device and the cutter to impart thereto a reciprocating motion during its rotation to thus enable the knives or blades on the cutters to act with a drawing cut upon the hide or skin, substantially as described.

3. In a machine for shaving hides or skins, a movable drum or carrier, a retardlng device,

'and means including a gear having movable bearings supported by pivoted links to move it in the same direction, but at a slower surface speed than that of the drum or carrler, combined with a pressure-bar having yielding fingers to bear upon the hide or skin, a swinging frame to which it is attached, and with a rotating cylindrical cutter, to operate substantially as described.

4:. In a machine for shaving hides or skins, a movable drum or carrier, a retarding device, and means to move it in the same direction, but at a slower surface speed than that of the drum or carrier, combined with a swinging frame, a pressure-bar having yielding fingers attached to said frame, and with a rotating cylindrical cutter, and with a pressure-roll carried by said frame between the retarding device and the pressure-fingers, to operate substantially as described.

5. In a machine for shaving hides or skins, a rotating drum or carrier, a widthwise stretching-roll'provided with spiral grooves extended right and left from its'center and jaws to engage and hold the end of the hide or skin,

combined with a retarding device intermediate said stretching-roll and the cutter, substantially as described, and with a rotating cylindrical cutter to act upon the surface of the skin or hide.

In testimony whereof I havesigned my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALFRED A. HUNTING.

lVitnesses:

BERNIOE J. NoYEs, Gno. W. GREGORY. 

